


The Red Fox of Science

by LunaStone48



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:20:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24742210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaStone48/pseuds/LunaStone48
Summary: They say that there's nothing to fear but fear itself. However in the stone world, that task is easier said than done when you have to do what you can to survive.
Relationships: Ishigami Senkuu/Reader
Comments: 7
Kudos: 53





	1. prologue

I Remember the day I met him all those years ago, after the worst tragedy that had happened to my small little family. Whether it was fate or just pure coincidence, I didn't care, I had found a new friend to last me for thousands of years. 

"Looks like little red is sitting by herself again." One of my classmates had whispered. 

They were always whispering like this. However I couldn't blame them, I got dropped into their class, so it makes sense that they didn't know what to do with me. Just like in america, most kids had figured out who to hang out with and who to avoid. It's instinct for humans, like all animals, to try figuring out the social order once they hit a certain age and unfortunately I got dropped in the middle of it. Like a little fox dropped into a wolf's den and forced to act like them.

"Does she even know how to read that book? The cover's in English." "I bet she's faking it, Just like her hair." "I saw her mom earlier and her hair was black" "It's probably dyed."   
'Is gossiping all they do?' I ask myself as I go back to reading my biology book. While it's a bit old, the information in it is extremely valuable. Though, I do feel sorry for the normal college student who has to try and read this textbook for their class. Besides, there wasn't anything else in the room to keep me engaged. A few inspirational or educational posters here. A few elementary school books there. A projector and a whiteboard. Overall, a normal classroom filled with normal people. 

"Hey, Eeva-chan!"   
I look up and see one of the girls who were whispering standing in front of my desk, looking suspiciously Innocent as her two friends start snickering at their seats on the other side of the room. 

"Whatcha reading?" She asks 

"A book on biology" I answer simply. 

"Is that so? Are you planning to be a scientist or something?" She says as she tilts her head to the side. She looked like a curious imp. 

"Something like that," I reply. Trying not to make any more conversation. 

"I see," she says.

"May I see your then book? I've never seen a book in English before." 

I looked at her and then turned to her friends who were discussing something unimportant . They must have gotten tired of gossiping and changed subjects. Most Likely not to waste the rest of their lunch break on me. I shrug. 

"Sure, Just be careful with it. My dad gave it to me." I say as I gently give her the book. As I do she quickly takes it from my hands and tosses it out the open window next to me. 

"Yeah right!" she yells as she throws my father's book out the window. I shot up out of my chair and raced off for my book.Due to the fact that the book was over a decade and read through a thousand times I sincerely doubt it would survive a three story fall . As I run out of the classroom I hear the girls laugh at my misery. I wouldn't put it past them to violate my desk while I'm gone and destroy the rest of my belongings, pretending like nothing happened. I sprint down the stairs and out the doors. Ignoring the teachers yelling at me to take off my indoor shoes but I didn't care at the moment. Based on the height of the fall and if it fell in the water fountain in the courtyard, it's highly likely that it might have destroyed my dad's book. However instead of finding my dad's book completely destroyed and waterlogged. I instead found two boys instead, the one that looked like a vegetable was on the ground and developing a major bruise on his forehead. While the other was panicking over his friend while yelling "SENKU! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" I ran over to see that not only had my book created the major bruise forming on the veggie kid's head but also that near the yelling kid there was a muscular system model laying on the ground. 

"What idiot throws a textbook out the third floor window?" the vegetable kid said slowly getting up from his collision with the ground and grabbing my book from above his head. I scamper over to check on the vegetable kid and his friend. 

"Are you okay? " I say as I bend down to help him up while the other kid was still screaming. 

"Yeah I'm fine...." he says as he takes my hand up. 

"I'm fine, Taiju! Stop yelling!" he shouts at his friend and on command he does just that and stares at his vegetable friend. Who I believe is named Senku. He glanced at me and I froze in fear. Wondering what he would do with me next and my book. 

"Is this yours?" he says, holding up my book and looking at me. I nod shyly, ashamed by these events. Even though I know that the one responsible wasn't me. However instead of reprimanding me he looks up to the window and I do as well only to see the three girls who were bullying me were now cowering in fear. I soon realized why as I turned back to this Senku kid, he had a dastardly look on his face.

" So, since it's pretty clear that you were bullying her and threw a book at my head. Why don't you three come down here and help me with my new experiment" he says with pure devilish glee. Before I could even blink the three girls ran away in pure terror at the thought of helping this kid. This only made me more worried. If they were afraid of this kid then I'm in deep trouble now. 

"As for you." he says looking back at me. I jump in pure terror of what he could possibly want from me. 

" It appears I've gotten the chance to meet this infamous new transfer student from the classroom next door. If this massive college grade textbook has anything to say about it." he says evilly as he holds up my book making sure to treat it with care. Meanwhile his friend looks at me pure awe as he then shouts, "No way! That's so cool!" He then looks to his friend next him and says. 

"Hey Senku? Do you think she can help us with your experiment?" 'Experiment?' I think before taking a step back away from the madman before me. He laughs for a second before replying to his friend 

"Your ten billion percent correct on that one Taiju! If this book is any guess on how smart she is then she's more than useful for this electrical experiment!" he says back to his brunette friend holding up my book. 'Electrical?! What have those idiot bullies gotten me into?!' I think trying to slink away back to the classroom before the mad scientist and his strong Igor decide to make me their next guinea pig. However, I made the mistake of turning my back on him and he grabbed my right wrist in my miserable excuse of an escape. 

"Where do you think you're going?" I let out a small "Eep" in surprise. 

" You're stuck with us now until this experiment is complete." he says with the most devilish look on his face as I turn back to him. My legs give out on me in fear like the weak little fox kit I am and he takes his hand to drag me back to his assistant most likely ruining my blue dress from the dirt while I'm quivering in fear. 

"Come on Taiju! Let's hide this classroom figure by the bushes and then come back for it after school to work in the experiment with this one." 

"Right!" the other one says as he picks up the muscular figure from the science lab. I don't know what came over me to raise my voice in the matter, but I knew this wasn't going to work in terms of an excuse to escape but it was worth a shot. 

"I..I can't... I have archery practice... this afternoon ... and then.. my mom wants..wants me to m..meet an old family f-friend for supper." I stuttered out. Trying to tug out of his grasp despite my shaking form. 

"Too bad!" says the mad one as he tightens his grip on my right wrist.   
"You're helping regardless of your opinion, you're more useful than that ape over there and I need more help on this." I sigh knowing I won't be able to escape this one. 'I just hope nothing bad happens because of this, like someone dying or us short circuiting the whole town.' I think as I resign my fate to these two. Little did I know that day that this one event would lead me to more adventures than I could ever dream and the rebirth of a whole new scientific era that would shock humanity to it's very core.


	2. The Event That Rocked the world

5 years later

"Eeva! Have you seen my power cord?! I can't find it anywhere!"

"Did you check your car?" Eeva says as she eats her breakfast with her grandma. Taking a quick glance over at her grandmother at the table with her. She sees her grandmother glaring through her glasses at the wall filled with picture frames that separates Hana, her daughter and her and her granddaughter in the dining room. Grandmother Mio glances back at Eeva and she gives her sympathetic smile knowing how her mother's personality can be hard to deal with. Though Hana's "I haven't looked there yet" from across the room doesn't help her in this situation.

"Why didn't you look there in the first place!" Mio shouts from her seat and she starts to go back to her breakfast porridge. She receives no response from Hana, only confirming to them that she went outside to her car. Mio sighs before going back to her food and rubbing her temples.

"Honestly, how on earth did she get to where she is now? She's the most respected researcher here in japan but would lose her head if it wasn't attached to her. Even now before a big trip overseas she still loses things just like a child" she grumbles as she wipes bread crumbs off her red old lady dress. Eeva chuckles at her mother's antics before both she and her grandmother tense as the front door slams open and closed. Both look over to the doorway that leads to the front door and see Hana gloomily walking in with phone charger in hand.

"Honestly Hana! You need to be more responsible with your things! I'm nearly eighty and still have my wits about me! While you're still in your prime and forgetful as hell!" Mio says as she gets up, grabs her Cane, and starts swinging it at her daughter. Hana dogues the attacks with ease, as she has told Eeva many times that she has been on the receiving end of grandmother's attacks all her life. As she and Mio continued to bicker with each other, Eeva received two messages on her phone. Sliding away the picture of their dog, Link, and looking at the messages, Eeva smiles. One from Yuzuriha and one from Taiju, both asking her if she knew where the closest veterinary office is from the school. She then gave them both the same answer as to where it is but Taiju asks another question about what's the weather supposed to be like around noon since it's getting close to the rainy season. She smiles, knowing that he's been asking for her opinion in confessing his love to Yuzuriha. Before Eeva could do anything further, the doorbell rings.

"It's probably Senku. Didn't you collect something for his latest experiment?" Hana said as she held the end of her mother's cane above her head, while her mother struggled to get it back.

"Yeah, he did." Eeva picked up her dishes and put them in the sink. Then grabbed both her school bag and the bottle caps that she had accumulated. "Alright I'm out, I'll be back before your flight mom. So I'll see you then and gran, go easy on mom!" Hana waved goodbye to her daughter before getting hit upside the head by Mio's cane that she let go of and earning an earful from the old woman. "Tell that brat he owes me more coca cola!"

"Took you long enough, at this rate it will be 0.30 seconds later than usual." Senku says as he waits at the front gate of the Suzuki household. Quickening her steps, Eeva glided over to him, handed him the plastic bottle caps and closed the front gate.

"Sorry, a bit of drama between my gran and mom this morning." She says tuning back to him as he inspects the contents of the bag.

"I heard it through the walls, that's why I'm over here preserving my hearing." Senku says with a deadpan expression on his face as they made their way to school.

"Then you heard my gran saying you owing her soda?"

"No"

"Right... and bone tissue isn't a type of connective tissue. I'll get her some after science club so you don't have to, since gran probably just wants an excuse to hit you with her cane again."

"Thank you"

The two go over the plans for their latest experiment and brainstorm where to go from there. As they get closer to school their conversation shifts to the two idiots who decided to go to the vet's office instead of straight to school.

"Do you think they found one of those preserved bird statues,Senku? I mean they don't usually make detours to the vet this early in the morning" Eeva asks the veggie boy. He thinks for a minute before responding.

"It's highly likely since we're in the range of where sparrows can be found and the recent posts about them have been getting closer." he says intellectually.

Eeva gives a small hum as they enter the main entrance of the school and head to the shoe lockers.

"I just hope it isn't Zoonotic and harm any other animals. Imagine what would happen." She says as she opens her shoe locker. Senku gives a small hum. " We can do some more research tonight after our experiment during club time. Also I'd read that love letter before the guy falls onto the floor from glancing over here." He says looking at the small wall that leads to the classrooms and both see one of the baseball players quickly scamper away. Eeva glances back at her locker and sees the small love letter. Picking it up and looking it over. 'A lot about my looks and not that much else, if anything it's a letter based more on admiring me rather than getting to know me.' She sighs and gently places the letter in the recycling.

"Not going to accept his feelings?" Senku asks with a devious grin, most likely from knowing the admirer saw the whole thing and that he still keeps his assistant. Not losing Eeva to the thing he calls an "illogical emotion".

"I barely know the guy. Besides If I want to get into a relationship it should be one that could also be a great and lasting friendship not solely based on physical attraction. One more reason to hate my red hair." Eeva says as she fiddles with the end of her high ponytail and starts to put on her indoor shoes. "It's a magnet for unwanted attention and I'd rather be working than dealing with that kind of crap at the moment." She says as she gets up and follows Senku to the science lab to drop off the bottle caps and prep for the experiment this afternoon. By the time they were all set up they got ready for their first classes of the day, silence loomed over both of them. Eeva hated it, an awkward silence developed due to the love letter she received.

'I know that look' Senku thought with a light sigh. 'She's overthinking again.' Most likely noticing Eeva's face goes blank. "Fox? Are you still in there?" He asked, tapping the side of her head. A small jolt was visible as she snapped out of her daze and looked up at him quizzically. " Have you heard about the latest research study?" " There's a new one? Huh, I must have missed it." "It came out while I was waiting for you to get your stuff." "Ah, that explains it. Care to summarize for me?" "Sure." After a brief summarization of the new study the pair soon found themselves back to normal and at the normal part of the hall where they would depart for their separate classes. "Try not to overwork your brain too much Fox. you have a tendency to let your emotions rule over you." Senku says before getting ready to turn into his class. "Try and get better at controlling "Illogical" emotions, who knows when they might come back to bite you." Eeva merely smiles and nods to her friend before he leaves. However the minute he leaves the smile leaves her face as she makes her way to her seat in the classroom next door. "Easier said than done Mr. genius" Eeva mutters as she gets her stuff ready for class. ' Most of my problems with that come from reconditioning my mind to not try to go to the worst case scenario. Besides, some parts of our mind are absolutely necessary for life.' Eeva lets her mind wander as the teacher continues with their lecture. As she continues to space out, the thought of a certain leak head wanders into her mind. Quickly snapping out of it and focusing back on the lesson before letting out an annoyed sigh. ' Illogical emotions can be annoying but they can at least make a day a little better.' Unbeknownst to her, a certain genius also lets his mind wander for a moment, even if it was just to wonder if she was okay.

The rest of the day went on fairly normally and the feeling soon left our american friend as classes ended and she prepared for after school clubs. As Eeva went on her way to the science club room she overheard some of the girls gossiping about how she rejected the members of the baseball team and how much of a fool she was for letting him go. 'Well excuse me for wanting someone to talk to instead of just an accessory. I swear this is why I can't take all these preps and stick to the nerds.' she thought as she walked into the club room. As she walked in most of the normal students were working with each other on their homework together or working on a small science experiment at the lab tables. Then there's Senku in the middle of the room looking like a madman as he preps his latest device. adjusting various nobs on the machine and changing the structure of the plastic. Some of which Eeva thinks he's doing for fun in order to scare some of the others .

" Having fun there Dr. Jekyll?" Eeva asks as she walks into the lab and puts her bag on one of the hooks by the door where personal belongings were held . The others all say hello and look up to see her before going back to their work. However Senku doesn't even look up. "Plenty of fun Madame Curie, now get your butt over here and help." She shook her head at his blunt response. She started to take her lab coat off the hook and started to put it on. "Right, by the way this evening should we work on-" "THIS IS IT, SENKU! MY MIND'S MADE UP! I'M FINALLY GOING TO DO IT! AFTER FIVE LONG YEARS, I'M TELLING HER HOW I FEEL!" "wow. fascinating.I can't leave the lab right now but I promise to cheer you on so vociferously, my vocal cords will snap. Also apologize to Eeva, you spooked her again."

"Yeah, remember the girl who was standing right next to the door and had the equivalent of an air horn go off right next to her. I do love covering my ears to stop the ringing and being forced on my butt from shock. A lovely feeling." The redhead said as she sat on her butt holding her hands over her ears and ponytail puffed up like a squirrel.

"CRAP! Sorry Eve." Taiju said as he offered her a hand up realizing what he just did. He's a good boy, just a bit on the loud side. After he helped Eeva up he went back to bugging Senku.

"So you really mean it! You rock, Senku!"

"No, you big oaf. I won't project my voice even one millimeter for your cause."

"What? Come on, man!"

"Look, you've felt this way for five years, but never said anything? I can't praise such illogical behavior, But I can give you something logical as hell."

'Uh-oh.' Eeva thinks as she brushes herself off and looks over at her fiendish friend. 'There it is, Senku's signature face when he's setting up a trick.' Eeva sighs and starts to walk over to the two idiots. Praying that the substance that Senku's hand isn't what she thinks it is. However Senku continues his proposition to Taiju.

"I've developed this drug as a kind of "love Potion". It maxes out your pheromone levels, granting you a ten billion percent chance of winning her heart".

'LIKE HELL IT IS!' Eeva thinks as Senku's devious face gets only worse. Though it looks like his pitch got some of the other guys in the club who were swinging single. Many of them look up from their work with curiosity knowing that if any one could make a love potion it would be Senku. Eeva walks up to Senku and hits him upside the head as Taiju was given the round glass. However in classic straight lace Taiju manner, he looks at the bottle and then dumps it down the sink drain, which normally isn't the best idea but this is Taiju we're talking about. Senku starts to smile as he does this while Eeva just lets out an annoyed sigh.

"Thanks, but no thanks, Senku. I gotta do this my way." Taiju then places down the flask and walks out as Senku goes back to uninterested now that his trick didn't work. Once Taiju is gone Senku looks at his female companion with an annoyed expression.

"Was the hitting really necessary, Eeva?" he says as he starts to lazily pick at one of his ears. "Don't do that to Taiju, If we lose him or something, you're going to be the one doing all the heavy lifting for the experiments." The redhead says as she starts to adjust the plastic to the gasoline machine and scoot him over. "What, you won't do for me, Ms. Artemis?" he says in a snarky and teasing tone. She looks at him dead in the eyes and says a big fat "No" to his face and goes back to work. He chuckled slightly at her response before getting interrupted by one of the other students.

" Are you serious? You made a love potion?" one of others says. Most likely in disbelief that Senku of all people would make such a thing.

Senku then lets out a sigh and lights a match. "Come on, use your brain. It's gasoline."

Then on cue, the residue from the gasoline still in the sink lights up quickly and then goes out. Showing the curious students who probably wanted some to see what it really was.

"I simply refined it from plastic bottle caps. Consider the molecular structure of polyethylene. It's just like a long gasoline molecule with a few hydrocarbons chopped off. You can tell just by looking at it."

As he says this, Eeva feels some of the others get completely lost in his words.

"Not all of us are mad geniuses here Senku. Next time, give the dumbed down version." She says as she continues to play with their device.

"Yeah,but.. If Taiju drank it wouldn't that have killed him?" another student asks. Eeva lets out a small snort as she hears that sound bite. Senku laughs as well before responding to the classmate.

"No, the odds of him drinking that are ten billion to one. He's dumb but too straight laced."

Eeva nods in agreement as she moves away from the device. "Senku's got a point, Tajiu is a bit old fashioned in that regard. Now come on Jekyll, let's go keep an eye on our big water buffalo." Senku gives her a quizzical look as he prepares to go back to work. "Why the hell should I do that?"

"Because, if this does actually backfire. Which I highly doubt, you can say goodbye to our plans for research tonight as we console the giant." he looks at her for a moment, then starts to walk over to her. "Glad we're in agreement."

With that they walked over to a good window that showed Yuzuriha waiting by the tree in the court yard. Senku then offered to get her a drink as she watched the start of the fireworks. Most Likely his silent way of thanking her for getting the vast amount of soda her gran wants once they get out of school. As Eeva waits, some of the other science club members follow suit to watch, all making bets on how this is going to go for the big oaf. Most of them doubting he'll get the girl.

"Morons." she says as a can of root beer is waved in front of her face. Eeva takes the can and starts to drink it as Senku declares his bet on them getting together like the hopeless fouls they are.

"Only a true idiot wouldn't be able to see their affection towards each other" She says pointedly at the trio of science members. As Taiju starts his confession, a chill goes up Eeva's spine. 'I know this feeling' she thinks and her eyes wander to the window at the end of the hall. Eeva grabs the sleeve of Senku's lab coat and tug on it. "Senku..." Eeva can feel his eyes on her as they both start to look at the window as an emerald green glow starts to emanate in the sky. Despite its beauty, every instinct Eeva had was telling her to run, that this toxic green color will lead to her end. That this whole thing was bad news. As it got brighter and what one could assume was a sonic boom going off. Noticing that his lab assistant had the look of a deer in the headlights, Senku instinctively pulled Eeva behind him. Unfortunately The push was a bit too hard and forced Eeva back onto the ground. While it did give Eeva a bit of a spook she knew it was on instinct from their more risky experiments. Regardless, both watched as their whole world go black.


	3. A Rude Awakening In Bat Guano

Thirty seven hundred years had gone by since Humanity was forced into their petrified state, causing mother nature to take back her land, returning it to it's simple beauty. However, one fateful day, the first of April, a certain young scientist named Ishigami Senku awoke from his petrified state. Soon, the young man began to bend nature to his will. However, there was one small problem that faced the young man. His own raw strength was lacking. It was true that what he lacked in strength he made up for in both mind and willpower, but in this harsh and cruel reality, strength is necessary. 'I've barely managed to keep myself alive, a single human, alive. I haven't had time to worry about science or progress.' He thought as he lay on the grass near his tree house hut, foaming at the mouth from fatigue. Suddenly, a thought passed through his mind. "At the very least, I'll need one other person. Someone with brute strength and stamina."

It wasn't til the dawn of the next day that Senku sought out the one person he knew would be the perfect fit for the job. Making his way back to the spot where he broke free with a shovel in hand. As soon as he made his way to the back to the site of his revival. He walked to a single hand that protruded out of the ground. With a good amount of force Senku struck the ground around the hand and started to dig up the body. 'I've got a hunch on this one. It was close to where I broke free, so it probably drifted here from the same location I did. His crazy-strong hands are exactly what I need!' Granted it probably took longer than he expected, however the result was a success. Letting his emotions quickly take hold of him for a quick second before letting the mad scientist back in. Senku smiled at the sight of his childhood friend and letting out a small laugh "Although I do get a little sick of looking at his stupid face, I think thirty seven hundred years may been enough of a break. Hey, Ya big oaf." Senku then stooped down into the pit his friend now resided in to get a better look at him. "All right, time to get started on Senku lab's first project. So tell me, meathead, what'll it take to get you to wake up like I did?" He said, sitting on the edge of the pit and poking the statue in repetition. However his thoughts turned inward as he started to ponder what exactly caused the petrifaction of humanity with theories ranging from viruses and weapons of mass destruction to aliens causing this problem. There was one thing though that the scientist knew was that this petrification was specifically targeted at swallows and humans. 'It seems like fantasy, but in reality, there's an underlying rule. Which means I can solve it. Discovering these hidden rules is what science is all about.' Senku then turned his attention onto the pile of stone from his own petrification with excitement of the discoveries ahead pushing him forward. "Right now, I'm starting down a new path. An uncharted branch of science! Get excited, Senku." taking both a literal and proverbial step back, Senku immediately took a seat on a rock nearby and pondered what caused his release, wondering if it was from just simple deterioration or something else. Noting how if it were simple deterioration then the outside would have been worn down by mother nature and that some other people around him were more like statues instead of being protected by it like himself. With this thought, a sudden realization hit him. That the stone could only reach so far and that if it couldn't go any further it couldn't rely on the living cells to create more stone for the husk he emerged from and why it had slight holes in it. With this, Senku was able to deduce that deterioration wasn't the cause of his release, that there was an unknown factor at play. Putting back the pieces of stone shell and analyzing them, Senku was able to deduce that his revival started at the top of his head. As he was dent down looking at the stone a small bat flew by his face turning his attention onto the cave nearby. Making his way in, the smell of bat guano immediately hit Senku's senses causing him to pinch his nose to try and stop the smell from coming in. "Smells like nitric acid." With those very words our young scientist hit an epiphany as the acidity from the bat urine would affect the soil nearby including himself. Taking a small piece of the petrification that still lingered on him he placed the small chunk on his middle and pointer finger and allowed the slow drops of bat urine to fall on his fingers and onto the stone. Within a few drops the petrification broke and the few hairs inside were free. Seeing this put a smile to Senku's face knowing he had found the X factor that set him free. Taking one of the clay vials that he had put on his tool belt and putting it down to collect the nitric acid to free his friend. Once full, Senku quickly ran outside and dumped the contents onto the big oaf's head. However instead of the quick response that Senku was expecting, the dumb giant still was stuck in his stone prison. Annoyed, Senku dumped the remaining contents of the nitric acid onto one or the sparrows he had collected and various statues around him and Taiju. None of them were revived. 'Why did the nitric acid only work on me? It's not making one millimeter of progress on Taiju or anyone else. There's gotta be an answer. What makes me different?' Returning back to the cave to both ponder his current problem with his revival and retrieve more nitric acid. He sat down criss cross as he watched the vial refill. ' Think. I Just need a working hypothesis. Come on, Senku, think!' With those thoughts the realization hit him. 'That's it! I was thinking! For the entire thirty seven hundred years I was petrified, I remained conscious. The human brain burns through 400 hundred calories a day. Over thirty seven hundred years, that works out to two terajoules of energy. But where did all that energy come from? E equals MC squared. Energy and mass have equivalent exchange. Old man Einstein expressed a basic scientific truth with that equation. It tells us we can't create energy from nothing. There's something in the stone itself that I was consuming. That's how I had the energy to use my brain. Finding out what that was is the key to undoing the petrification!' As Senku rose from his spot in the cave in order to start experimenting, a small red light caught his eye. "What the?" Looking back further into the cave Senku noticed a small glimmer coming in from the back of the cave as the sun was starting to slowly set into the west. "Is there a form of quartz deposit in the cave as well? No, there's not enough volcanic activity near here. '' As he slowly passed the colony of bats in order to not cause them to get spoked he saw that the light was emanating from a human statue. Most likely swept away in the same force of nature that brought him and Taiju. A simple small red ruby pendant on a gold chain hung from the statue's neck. A bit of elegance against the fear of the poor girl entombed, but it was enough for the young scientist to identify the being. Quickening his pace, Senku stopped right in front of the statue and smirked wickedly at them, knowing their use in this primitive age. "Why am I not surprised that you would end up in a place like this, Eeva. You did always love learning about the ecosystem." As Senku was about to reach out to her to check on his assistant before pulling back his hand as a memory from his childhood reminded him to wait for his friend's sake. "If the big oaf was up I'd wake you up ten billion percent, however for the sake of your health I'm afraid it would be best if you were to stay here." Senku said as he put his hands on his hips and looked up at his friend. "I'm sorry Eeva, But look at it this way you can study the bats without dealing with the smell." He said going back to his sarcastic self as he kept flicking the poor girl's nose knowing full well under normal circumstances she would verbally murder him for doing so.

Cer-Crack

Senku immediately retracted his hand from his assistant's face as six cracks appeared on Eeva's face, three stripes on each side of the cheek as her petrification began to break down. Realizing his mistake for tempting fate. He immediately prepared to catch her, despite his lack of strength. Which he did as she came tumbling out of the stone prison forcing them onto the ground of the cave. Senku pulled her into his lap. She started to breathe heavily and had a look of fear on her face. "You okay Eeva?" Senku asked his friend as she tucked her head into his shoulder and grasped at his shirt. "Yeah.." she said rather hoarsely. "Just.. just give me a moment to put some fresh air into my system." Senku gave a small hum in agreement as he sat there with his friend. However a thought passed through his head in recollection, mainly Eeva's massive collection of Shoujo manga alongside her biology and anatomy books.

Nope, not happening! Senku immediately pulled his shirt off and shoved it onto the red haired girl.

"What the hell Senku?!" Eeva said, reverting back to English. "Why the heck did you do that!?" The redhead said as she looked at the now shirtless Senku, as she adjusted the shirt onto herself. Senku stood up and started to walk out of the cave, patting off the dirt from the floor.

" The last thing I need is you spazzing out like one of the girls from your mangas and squealing over being seen naked." Annoyed, Eeva begrudgingly followed him out of the cave making note of the bats and the state she was in.

"Senku, I've spent my life looking at human anatomy and studying the natural world. Do you really think I'd flip out over something so trivial after what just happened ?"

"Yes'' As Senku gets to the end of the cave he looks back to see Eeva tapping her fingers together and walking heel to toe.

"You good?" Senku asked as he watched her check her neurological signs. She looked up from her fingers and smiled.

"Yep, just making sure everything is alright and that there's no nerve damage after being imprisoned in stone."

"Good." Senku looked back to the "statue" of Taiju knowing that he would have to come back another day to remove the big oaf.

"So..." Senku turned to the side to see Eeva also looking down at their still entomb friend. "I think it's safe to say based on the state I was in with Taiju and the fact that there appears to be not a single scrap of civilization left that we've been petrified for at least over a thousand years."

Senku smiled and stretched upwards to look at the sky as it started to darken. "Your ten billion percent correct Eeva, to be more exact today is May first of the year 5738 with thirty seven hundred years having gone by and as of currently only you and I are the only humans that aren't petrified like our big oaf here." Eeva gave a curt nod to her new companion then smiled and walked past Senku.

"So which way to our makeshift shelter so we can get to work on a cure." Smiling at how quick his companion was at the whole situation and caught up to her to show her the way.

On the way there Senku explained the most recent data that he uncovered about their petrified states and their current situation in terms of food and resources.

"So in other words, until Taiju wakes up science is taking a slight back seat in terms of importance."

"Correct, however I was hoping that you would be woken up after Taiju was woken up." Senku said as he moved a branch out of the way for them that finally allowed them into the clearing where Senku's hut and lab were set up.

"You're talking about my little 'tick', right?" Eeva said as she walked to the dried fire pit and looked around for something to start it with. Senku let out a sigh as he knew his friend was avoiding the issue by trying to make herself useful. He walked over to his tools to hand her the bow drill.

"Eeva, don't push yourself. You just work up and in this stone world losing any energy to something frivolous is a surefire way to die. So don't let your emotions get the better of you." Eeva didn't look up from the unlit fire pit as she was handed the bow drill and started to get to work.

"Alright but we still have work to be done. Why don't you start working on trying to figure out the revival formula while I work on keeping things stable in terms of food supplies." With those words she looked up and gave a small closed eyed smile to he male companion. However both knew that was just an excuse. Senku let out a sigh and walked to the lab knowing that trying to convince her when her mind was made up was like asking a hippo to run like a horse. 'Just don't do anything stupid Eeva.'

As day turned to night supper was being cooked over the fire and freshly made pots for later experiments dried, the female scientist worked on her own project as she waited for her male counterpart to return from collecting sparrows for more tests. As she waited, she continued to work on the piece of rope, glancing up every so often to keep an eye on the roasting mushrooms. As she looked up from her work she noticed her friend had returned and was struggling with the bird statues he had collected due to the weight of them all.

"Need a hand?" she asked as she watched him juggle the birds in his arms.

"N-no!" Eeva just shrugs and moves to take the mushrooms away from the fire and places them on a large leaf she had collected from the forest. As she finishes, an exhausted scientist sits across from her with the fire separating them.

"Sure you didn't need any help back there?" Eeva says with a small smug smile creeping up her face as she looks to the scientist. Senku only shoots a look before going back to catching his breath. Regardless, Eeva hands him the leaf with some of the mushroom kabobs on it before taking a break from her project and taking a few bites of her own kabob. The two stayed silent as they ate their meals and let their minds wander to what should be done next.

"You might need to stay in my shirt for a bit longer, or at least until we can catch some deer and skin them." Senku said as he was about to take another bite off his food. Eeva gave a small hum in agreement while she swallowed her food.

"True, and since it's early may the blanket you have in the hut should be used for warmth at night instead of clothes. I'll set up some more traps tomorrow morning and see if any of the ones you set up has caught anything. You focus on the antidote. I'll help you with that when Tajiu wakes up so he can take over foraging."

"Sounds good. You making a bow for defense?" Senku asked as he pointed to the chunk of bamboo next to her and the rope she was working on between bites. Eeva looked up from her work and nodded.

"Some distance is better than no distance when faced with a predator. Regardless, I think it would be best to call it night." The male agreed to her statement and both put out the fire and went to bed.

Over the next couple of days they did exactly that. Senku would spend the day working on the formula with the occasional break to cook some of the food they have been collecting. While Eeva would spend the mornings checking the traps and looking for various edible herbs,roots, and berries and the afternoon would be spent making other clay tools along with her simple bow and arrows. However after three days of nothing being caught in any of the traps Eeva was starting to get a little impatient and nervous due to the fact that it was still early may and unlike her male counterpart her tolerance to the cold was much more bearable. "Eeva, you're worrying over things you can't control. Just Relax." was Senku's response to her constant worrying but it never helped. "I know but the last thing we need is you getting sick or worse." She said as she paced one night. The next morning as Eeva woke up to start the day while Senku slept her eyes wandered to the bamboo bow she had made along with some leaf and stick arrows that were nestled in an over the shoulder woven sheath that laid against the rough wood wall of their tree house. She then took a quick glance at Senku who was shivering slightly under the rough deer pelt. Letting out sigh, Eeva got up and grabbed the bow and arrows and made her way down to the ground. As she did, she noticed the gray clouds were starting to roll in along with wind. 'Great' Eeva thought as she made her way into the forest and to the few traps that were set up with her bow over her shoulder. Once there and able to see that while the bait was taken the traps didn't go off. "Note to self, fix the traps so they have more tension and a quicker reaction." She then bit her lip and took her bow off her shoulder. "Well I suppose the weather couldn't be more perfect. Any animals wandering about will probably hunker down for this storm. And as dad always said 'The wind and the rains always make for the best time to strike your prey, as they won't hear you coming."


	4. Reality Check in the Rain

As the male scientist started to wake up for the day, the cold chill of an early may morning hit him like a brick and he pulled the rough deer skin blanket over his shoulders to regain some of his body heat. As the living heater known as Eeva had already left to check the traps for the day. So Senku got up and started to stretch. He walked over to some of the jars of mushrooms and grabbed a few for breakfast and then leaned against the wooden wall to start processing what to do for the day. ‘Alright, I should probably move the big oaf today. It was starting to look a bit cloudy yesterday so it’s likely that it will rain today. Best to move him before he gets reburied by the wet soil.’ Once done with his food Senku stood up and started to walk to the door of the tree house and noticed that the bow and arrows that Eeva had made were gone.   
“Did she take it just in case? No, I highly doubt that most animals would settle down for the storm.” he asked as he lowered himself to the ground. Half way down the latter a strong gust of wind hit the scientist and shivers ran up his spine. “Eeva better hurry up as well or we’ll both get sick and it will be game over for both of us.” with that Senku picked up the shovel lying against the tree with all the other tools and made his way to the revival cave.   
As those words were spoken a small sneeze left Eeva as she walked through the forest.   
‘Jeez, there's got to be something around here worth hunting for.’ As she walked the wind blew once more and caused her to shiver from the cold and rub her arms to warm herself up. ‘If I’m this cold the Senku must be freezing. I have to hurry up and catch something.’   
Soon enough, a small “Snap!” could be heard. Eeva immediately squatted down and prepped her Bow. Quickly, she took a look around the area to see what caused the sound.   
‘Please don’t be a predator, please don’t be a predator, please for the love of god don’t be a predator!’ After a few moments the beast came into view about 8 yards away from where she hid among the bushes of the forest. A yearling buck stood tall as it looked around the forest trying to make sure no predators were about, unaware that a would be predator was lurking nearby.  
‘Okay Eeva, you can do this. It’s now kill or be killed and right now you're the hunter and have to..kill.” Eeva creeped towards the youngling as quietly as she could through the bushes of the forest trying not to scare her prey. Inching and crawling forward without making a sound from her shaking form. Once she got within a good range she stopped, that way she could assure a clear humane kill. However there was a small problem, the shaking didn’t stop. This made her worry about the quality of her shot. As it seemed her body was against the i idea of spilling the blood of a living creature. She sat on the balls of her feet, squatted down, and strung the arrow onto the bow. She used the bushes to angle herself and pulled back.  
‘Just let go of the string and that buck is all yours. Just don’t think about the blood or the destruction of tissue or the..’   
As Eeva was too distracted with her own thoughts she failed to notice that the young buck was starting to get slightly suspicious of his surroundings. Tail raised, ears up and ready to run. Eeva then noticed that her chance was slipping away from her as her heart was pounding in her chest.  
‘Shoot, god dammit! Or you’ll miss your chance!’ With those thoughts, Eeva let the arrow lose. As it hit its mark, the young stag bolted, an arrow embedded into its rib cage.  
“Not bad Eeva… You got one…” with those words uttered, Eeva's stomach boiled and churned, causing all its contents to spill out and she drop her bow. The poor girl was forced into the pile of her own pike. As her heart harshly pounded against her chest as if begging to be realized from her rib cage. Eeva grasped at her ruby necklace, desperately trying to steady her irregular breathing .   
‘Shit… not now. I.. don’t have time for this..’  
***  
The clouds opened up and started to pour down onto the young scientist as he heaved his muscular friend out of the ditch and dragged him into the cave that held the drip line of nitric acid. Once under the drip line, Senku stood back up and looked to his friend still entombed.   
“Take some of this nitric acid and get up already! Hear me, blockhead?” Senku then leaned over his friend with a look of both determination and concern on his face.   
“You’re awake inside there, aren't ya? You’ve been awake this whole damn time! You and I are no different in that regard! You don’t know when to give up either!”   
Frustration reared its head causing him to clench his teeth. “Taiju, I’ll wait for you as long as it takes! Because I can’t do this without you! So please come back Taiju!” As his shouts echo inside the cave, the sound of lightning crashes outside. However that wasn’t the only sound to be heard outside as various snaps and cracks of the branches outside the cave were heard. Senku ran to the edge of the cave just in time to see a young stag crash into one of the trees nearby and collapse. Senku ran over to get a better look at the deer with a knife in hand to see what caused the large creature to collapse.  
‘Did a predator get to it and escape? No,there aren't signs of bite marks.’ When Senku reached the beast he noticed that some of the skin near the ribs was starting to create a small tent in the skin. Which even the untrained eye could tell that wasn’t normal for that area. Putting his knife away and bending down, Senku ran over his hand the small protrusion that showed. The protrusion was only slightly dulled but it was enough to tell that something was piercing though the ribs. Senku then stood back up and got a good grip on the wet animal’s legs before flipping it over with all his might.   
“There it is.” once flipped a half destroyed arrow protruded out the other side of the ribs. Senku bent down and pulled the wooden arrow out of the dead animal. He twirled it between his fingers as he looked at the wood and leaf arrow.  
“Let your anxiety tell you what to do huh, Eeva. Goddammit.”   
With those words Senku bolted into a sprint to go after the fallen archer. Knowing full well that her traumatophobia had kicked in. This was made even more difficult due to the rain as the blood from the buck was starting to slowly start to fade away.   
“Most bucks can get at least a hundred yards and at worst eight hundred yards. It’s safe to assume the latter due to the only showing signs of being hit by the arrow and bumping into a few trees”   
It took the young scientist a good amount of time to find her. He was completely soaked head to toe when he reached Even and even she was in a sorry state. Splotches of mud covered her body and her head rested in her own bile. Senku merely leaned over and nudged her shoulder as he tried his best to catch his breath.   
“Come on… fox.. You … need to get up. ..I can’t carry you all the way back up to camp.”   
However she only let out a groan of annoyance at the movement and showed no signs of getting up any time soon due to exhaustion. This forced a sigh out of Senku.   
“Of course she wouldn’t wake up after that.”  
With that, Senku grabbed Eeva’s bow and slung it over his torso and adjusted it snugly onto himself before struggling to pull Eeva’s arm over his shoulder to bring her back to camp.   
***  
Thwap!   
“I missed” the small red headed girl said as she lowered the small bow in her hands. A frown adorned her face as she looked to the arrow that protruded out of the ground. It was one of several that also stuck out of the ground around a small target bag that sat on two sawhorses. “You can’t get it every time, sweetie.”   
The small girl turned to the older red head male who sat next to her in the grass of their big backyard.   
“You should be thankful that none went into the woods. Who knows what would happen in there” The red head man said as a maniacal smile appeared on his face and wiggled his fingers. In frustration the little girl dropped her bow and jumped on her father, shoving him to the ground.   
“Stop being mean Papa! Nothing will happen. The worst that could happen would be bumping into an animal like a squirrel.”   
The older man gave his daughter a devilish smile and then hugged her to his chest before blowing a raspberry into her neck. Causing her burst into giggles.   
“Oy! Did you two start the fun without me?!”   
The two stop and look up to see the third member of their family join them as she sat down and wrapped her arms the two. Causing all three to start laughing and smiling.  
“But your father had a point. One can never know what waits for you ahead. Even if it’s just a bump in the road or the worst case scenario.” The little girl thought for a moment before slithering out her parent’s arms and picked up her bow and arrows ready to shoot again.  
“Eeve?”   
“Well them! I’ll work hard and get better than anyone else.”   
This caused her father to burst out laughing at his little girl’s determination.  
“Well then Sweetheart. Just keep trying and you’ll get there, no matter how long it takes”  
***  
A groan left Eeva as she slowly awoke. Her whole body felt sore and weak from the panic attack and overall just wanted to go back to sleep. As she shifted, trying to get herself into a comfortable position, She was finally able to make sense of her surroundings. She was at the camp but on the ground resting up against the trunk under the tree house as the rain poured relentlessly. Senku’s shirt she ruined with her vomit and mud hung on the small roughly made clothesline out in the rain. She sat up from betweenst the roots of the tree and pulled the blanket from the hut above her collarbone to cover herself.   
“Bet you feel like crap now, huh Fox?”  
Eeva looked up to see a completely disheveled Senku walking over to her as he ran a hand through his hair. Now completely down due to being soaked.  
“You’ve been out for at least 3 hours and I can only assume that your completely wiped after that little attack”  
This caused a small laugh to leave Eeva as her companion leaned down to place a hand on her forehead to make sure that a fever hadn't formed in his companion.  
“I fucked up pretty good, didn’t I? Sorry about that.”  
Senku didn’t respond as he removed his hand from her forehead and gave the girl a stern look in response to her words before sitting down in the semi-dry grass.   
“I told you not to go do that Eeva. What were you thinking? I’m sure you knew that your traumatophobia would kick up and would force you into a panic attack.”  
Eeva laid back down and turned away from Senku, trying not to make eye contact with him out of shame of the events that have transpired.   
“I figured, after thirty seven hundred years of reciting everything involving the science of life from cells to individual biomes I might be able to at least try to hunt. But I still can’t deal with any type of wound despite the amount therapy and forced exposure I’ve put myself through. Figures as much.” Eeva said as she watched the rain poor off the side of the hut.   
“You have a point, but it would have been much smarter to wait till Taiju had woken up to try this, Eeva.”  
“Yeah, But let’s not forget who gets hypothermia from just sitting in a pool.” Eeva said as she looked back to Senku. It was Senku’s turn to look away as he silently admitted his own weakness, before looking back at her.   
“Fair.”   
Eeva smiled before looking out the rain and getting comfy between the two bark roots as Senku got up and ready a fire for the night under the tree house so both could warm up a little.   
“Did anything else of note happen after I blacked out?” Eeva asked once she was settled in. A small smile appeared on Senku’s face as he thought about what he did before coming to Eeva’s aid.   
“I set Taiju up under the nitric acid right before that deer you shot came crashing out of the forest. Speaking off, I put the deer you caught in one of the snares we have set up in order for both any after death fluids to come out and keep predators away from it till tomorrow when I have a chance skin it”   
“ Thank you, I appreciate it. Do you think it would be a good idea to have me watch as you skin it? If we let this continue it could cause problems further down the line.”  
With those words Senku finally sat down in front of the fire he had just built and looked to his companion.   
“Slowly yes, however if you feel even the slightest bit weak you have to tell me Eeva. While I’m happy that we were able to get the materials and your archer skills are still as great as ever. However if it wasn’t for the fact that you got ten billion percent lucky with me finding you you could have eaten by a predator or worse by getting sick.”   
Annoyed, Eeva sat up from her spot and looked to her male counterpart.   
“It was still better than letting you freeze to death from the lack of fat on your bones. I took a chance and I know that. But if we don’t take some risk we won’t be able we to focus on the revival fluid if our head scientist keels over from a dumb cold he can’t shake. Then we’re both screwed.”   
With those words both stared in sternness at each other hoping the other would submit at the truth in each other’s words. However their starting match was broken as Eeva’s headache fared back up from her abrupt movement. This caused Eeva to sink back down into her spot with the aid of Senku placing a hand to help guide her down.   
“Alright new plan fox, We’ll both switch between working in the lab and other crafts with the only exception being that you help me with the skinning as long as you can tomorrow with that buck you caught. Then when the Big oaf wakes up we can both focus on the formula and leave him to hunt, with you helping occasionally until we sort this problem out. Deal?”  
Eeva laid back down and let out a sigh.  
“Sounds like a deal my friend.” she said with a smile before closing her eyes to ease her headache.


	5. Good Morning

Eeva woke the next morning with the sun shining brightly in her eyes as it was still early enough that the light could make its way under the tree house but still dark enough to tell it was still early. As a result it hit the girl right in the eyes. Eeva slowly let herself up to ensure that the headache from last night hadn’t decided to hit her again this morning. Thankfully though, it seemed it had passed after a good night’s rest. As she sat up she noticed that Senku had his back to her with his shirt on. Most likely to share body heat and keep an eye on her overnight. Eeva stood up and stole the deer skin blanket and wrapped it around her like a towel and punched a small hole in the part that overlapped by her collarbone and strung a bit of the thinner rope through the hole to keep it together till her and Senku could skin the deer she caught the other day.  
‘Looks nice out today. Though I should probably do something quiet in the meantime in order not to wake Senku up.’ Eeva thought as she tightened the string on the dress. Once done, Eeva quietly made her way to the lab and opened it up for the day by lifting up the woven grass rug and placing the large branch under it to keep up.   
“Alright, now what to work on today.”   
All the walls were lined with shelves with more or less empty pots along with multiple stone sparrows. Overall the room was ready for the duo to start their research but was still lacking in things like a work desk, stools and writing materials.  
“Of course he used wood scraps to write down data.” Eeva said as she looked at the few notes that Senku had been able to make by himself before Eeva’s revival that were written on bark with a makeshift knife.   
“Well since making old fashion paper will make a bit of noise from the grinding of wood to create pulp, it’s best that I make ink first since it will be quieter and we can put more use to it.”   
Eeva walked to the side of the lab to grab one of the larger jars that were made that was no bigger than a watermelon .  
‘I don’t have everything that would be necessary for making traditional ink but I should be able to make something close enough with what's around. But first I need some water. Normally distilled water is used when making ink so I'll have to boil it and hope for the best.”   
“And where do you think you're going?”  
Eeva stopped dead in her tracks as a voice called out to her as she was preparing to head to the ocean. Eeva looked over to the source to see Senku shifting against the base of the tree getting ready to get up for the day. He stood up and patted the dirt off of him and walked in front of Eeva, arms crossed.  
“Did you forget what happened the other day?”  
Eeva looked away in annoyance for a moment before returning her attention back to Senku.  
“No, but it’s better than sitting around doing nothing. Besides we need to make some ink in order to not cut ourselves and risk infection while collecting data about the petrification. We also agreed that we’d switch between who does what for the day and that we’d skin that deer today.”   
Senku let out a sigh as he closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. It wasn't even midday and Eeva was already starting to get ahead of herself for their sake by pushing her body even more after her panic attack the other day.   
‘I knew this was coming, but I didn’t think she’d start so early. I would have at least figured she’d let herself sleep in a little to recover a bit and wait till I grabbed that stage for skinning.”  
“Look here Eeva. Huh,Eeva?”  
As Senku opened his eyes and looked around the camp. He noticed that his dear old friend had ditched him for the ocean to collect sea water while he was contemplating what to do with his assistant.  
“Goddammit Eeva!”  
Meanwhile Eeva was making a mad sprint to the ocean. Knowing full well that when she returned to camp she would get an earful from Senku. Once she hit the beach she let out a couple of rough puffs of air as she bent down leaning over the larger jug to steady herself.  
“I am so going to get it when I get back. But for now ink and paper come first in order to progress our research. We need better equipment than just rocks and wood”  
Eeva made her way into the water allowing it to come up to her knees before bending down and allowing the water to fill the large jug and letting the sea brush against her thighs and soaking the ends of the bottom part of the blanket. Once full, Eeva rested the jug on her hip to begin carrying it back to shore. Once there, she turned back to the calm morning sea that glistened in the light. She smiled at the sight  
“The first thing on earth were prokaryotes living in the sea as the underwater volcanoes constantly erupted and created the land. Yet it still remains after humanity was turned to stone and thirty seven hundred years have passed. The ocean it still remains”  
Water for ink and sea salt acquired.   
‘Now to head back… this is going to be lovely. I can already hear Senku’s lecture coming. Oh well I’m sure Senku won’t be too cruel… I hope. I better grab some blackberries to add the color’   
However, Eeva was dead wrong on that thought. When she returned with the jar full of sea and blackberries floating on top, she found Senku elbow deep in the guts of the Stag she had caught the other day. Unsurprisingly Eeva lost whatever was in her stomach and nearly dropped her jar of sea water.  
“What the Fuck Senku! Are you trying to get me to have another panic attack!”  
“Ah Eeva! Welcome back, I figured since you were recovered enough to run to the ocean and carry back at least 3.7 liters of water and berries. I figured you were well enough to enjoy me skinning your deer.”  
Even though Eeva couldn’t see Senku’s face as she was looking down at the ground trying to avoid the sight of the deer with it’s rib’s pride open. She knew that Senku had that stupid shit eating grin on his face.  
‘That bastard is doing this on purpose!’ Eeva thought as she grinded her teeth in frustration at Senku’s action. And said male was very much enjoying watching Eeva avoid the sight of the deer as she adjusted herself on the ground to have her back to him while he gutted the thing.   
“You’ve made your point asshole. When will you be finished?” Eeva said as she leaned over the jar in order to get comfy knowing full well that she was probably going to be there for a while.  
“Probably an hour and a half t, so you might as well get comfy over there and actually rest you spaz. Also try reciting the process of gutting an animal in order to get over your phobia.”  
Senku replied as he started to work on removing the entails and placing them in a jar to be used as bait for more omnivorous prey for them to hunt. Eeva let out a sigh knowing that Senku wouldn't hesitate to shove the entrales in her face to get her to pass out and rest.  
“Well since we drained it yesterday of any loose fluids that should be fine, but do remember that the body does make natural fluids inside the thoracic cavity to allow smooth movement between organs. Anyway you probably cut through the linea alba and diaphragm so the next thing to do would be..”  
The rest of the morning was spent like this with Eeva going over the process of gutting it without spilling her guts and Senku taking care of the last parts of the deer.   
“Alright Eeva, all done.”  
With that she flopped on her back and looked up at Senku from the ground to see him wiping what remained of the blood into a large leaf, causing her to dry heave. He then tossed the leaf into the wood and looked to his friend who looked disgusted with the blood.  
“Come on Eeva time to get to work.”  
On command she stood up slowly and walked over with her hands over her stomach still looking a little disgusted while Senku just smiled.  
“I hear ya, so what do you want me to do?”  
“Exactly what you were planning to do. Get the salt for the meat by boiling it and dissolving the sea water into steam. I’ll cook the meat and when we're done with lunch we’ll make your paper alright. Besides, I was getting sick of picking splinters out of my finger’s anyway.”  
The green in Eeva’s face seemed to vanish instantly as she heard those words as a smile appeared on her face instead at the thought of finally getting to work. She quickly prance over to the lab like a happy filly to separate the sea water. Senku couldn’t help but smile at her childish actions but followed none the least.   
***  
The two continued to follow the promise they made to each other in order to continue to survive and find the cure to the petrification. Summer had gone by and soon enough October was on the horizon, meaning that the cold air would soon sweep in and make things harder for the two.  
“Taiju hasn’t woken up yet. Do you think we should be worried?” Eeva said as she stood and dusted off the wood chips she was cutting for more paper off her deer skin dress. It looked no different than a sleeveless dress shirt dress with the only differences being the tufts of rabbit fur on the end of the dress and the small work belt with tools . Senku looked of from his work desk and stretched before looking to the long sheet calendar Eeva asked him to make  
“Well we didn’t have the luxury of seeing how long we were exposed to the nitric acid so it makes sense that it might take a while. Though let’s hope the big oaf doesn't wake up mid winter.”  
Eeva gave a nod in agreement as she went to the wood pile for more wood chips. She worried for the poor fool as he might freeze to death if he woke up midwinter, especially in a stone cold cave. Nonetheless they knew that the big oaf would wake up sooner or later and make the process much smoother for the two scientists in order to not have to leave their work to get food and resources.   
Before Eeva could sit down a small snap was heard from Senku’s desk along with a small ‘Shit’.  
This caused Eeva to stand back up and look over Senku’s shoulder to see that he had broken the small paint brush they had made from sticks and a bit of Eeva’s long hair She smiled as she could see the slight annoyance in his eyes as she then looked to the paper the notes were slightly destroyed by this.   
“Do you want to go on a walk and get more branches so that we can make better paint brushes?” She said with a sympathetic smile.   
Senku let out a defeated sigh and nodded before getting up to do so.   
“I think I will. Also don’t cut around the stone spot around your neck just in case.” Senku said as he made his way to the door and made his way out in the woods. Eeva let out a small ‘Okay’ and went back to work. Her hand on instinct went to the back of her neck where a good amount of petrification still lingered from her hair being in a ponytail at the time of petrification. When Eeva tried to put her hair up for the first time since they made her dress. Senku got the best look at and compared it to a good size scab covering her nape. He instructed her to not try and rip it off as it was still fairly secured to the back of her neck and didn’t want to come off. However, Eeva considered this easier said than done as one, both knew she was a notorious scab picker, and two, whenever she did try to put her hair up the way she liked it would pull on the hair still petrified causing discomfort. So to stop both from happening Eeva kept her long ginger hair down to not hurt herself.  
After roughly an hour of working by herself in the lab the small sound of voices started to inch closer and closer to the hut. Getting up and making her way to the door she saw Senku standing high in the tree house, balancing between the floor and the latter, and there on the ground was the big oaf himself looking rather determined.   
“Yeah. Of course I’m not!” Taiju said as he looked back up to Senku. Senku then climbed back without his materials he had placed aside and put his hands on his hips smiling at the big oaf.  
“Good to see you up Taiju!” Eeva said with a smile as she walked to the boys.   
Both turned to look at her. However both scientists did not expect what happened next. As Taiju burst into tears and made a mad dash for the girl to give her a hug.  
“EEVA! YOU'RE ALRIGHT!”  
“WAIT YOU BIG OAF! YOU DON”T HAVE CLOTHES ON YET”  
While Senku was too late to possibly grab this mountain of a friend from bear hugging Eeva to death. He did get a front row seat of Taiju crashing head first into one of the nearby trees as Eeva side stepped Taiju’s charge.  
“Good to see you're alright,Taiju.”  
“I don’t think he’s alright anymore Fox.” Senku said as he looked to his other friend who was no doubt watching birdies spin around his head. Regardless, true scientific work can finally start.


	6. Let's get to work!

After a long and frustrating night for the scientific duo of catching their muscular friend up to speed on what was going on without losing him to simple minded confusion of the metaphor Senku had used comparing them to Adem and Eve. Things were starting to get exciting. Regardless the two males were already working when Eeva awoke the next morning in the treehouse by herself. As she made her way down she found Senku looking over the small flat stump she dug up to have a flat surface for her papermaking and the large flattish stone she used for crushing.  
“Everything okay?” Eeva asked as she saw him poke and prod at the edges of the paper. Senku then looked up and stopped his action before turning to her.  
“Yeah, Just making sure it’s forming properly.”  
Eeva smiled before leaning down next to him to look at the forming edges.  
“I wish I had better skills in wood crafting to make a proper paper mold but something is better than nothing.”  
“True and with the big oaf, we can make better pulp once he gets back from getting some breakfast.” Eeva stood up and looked to the male with concern.  
“You did tell Taiju what to collect and what not to? Right, Senku?”  
She watched as he stood up and started to pick his right ear with a look unconcern for the big fool.  
“I don’t think so. Oh, well” He said with a shrug. Eeva’s eye twitched at words but merely flicked his arm, knowing she would never inflict harm on him but her worry still did not leave her as she walked towards the fire pit and looked to the woods while pacing.  
“I’m serious Senku. What if Taiju eats something toxic by accident! Like Yue berries or poison nightshade! We don’t have anything to pump his stomach or reversal agents!”  
Senku shook his head and watched as his friend started to tumble down into a spiral of unnecessary worry before walking over to calm down Eeva. However he never got the chance as Her pacing around the fire pit had stopped and started shaking him furiously by the shoulders in worry.  
“You know how he is! He might have tasted something as an early morning snack to make sure it was safe for us!”  
“What’s safe for you guys?”  
Both scientists turned to see Taiju slightly worn out but happy with his pack filled to bursting with mushrooms, herbs, and a wild piglet.  
“Taiju! Your back!” Eeva said as she let go of Senku’s Shoulders causing him to fall back slightly but not enough to fall on his butt. She rushed up to him and basically forced his mouth open to check and see if he ate anything.  
“You didn’t eat anything while foraging, Right?” Eeva said in a panic as she kept tilting his head to check for any food particles stuck to his teeth. However, Taiju merely shook his head while still in Eeva’s grip before smiling once she let go of him.  
“See Eeva, I told you he would be fine!” Senku said as he walked over to the two as Eeva turned back to him and gave him a flustered scowl before going back to mothering Taiju.  
“Shut it! it’s better to be safe than sorry!”  
Senku couldn’t help but smile at Eeva’s annoyance before turning to Taiju’s haul and looking a little concerned as he removed the piglet before Eeva could stop acting like a mother hen and have an attack.  
“Regardless.” Senku said to bring the attention back onto him and Taiju’s haul.  
“This is definitely a plus sized haul, Taiju. Do you have a cheat code for stamina or something?”  
Eeva then turned to Taiju.  
“Did you grab anything you thought was edible for this load, Taiju?” she said with a slight bit of concern clear in her voice. The Big oaf gave his friend a wide closed eye smile before his reply.  
“Yep! There’s three of us now so we're going to need a lot of food right.”  
Eeva gave him a sheepish smile.  
“I figured as much.” she said as she placed her face in her hands.  
This caused Taiju to open eyes and see that Senku was dividing the things he had gathered into two new baskets one labeled ‘edible’ and one labeled ‘inedible’ and the one with the toxic plants was quite full.  
“Amanita Virosa! Toxic! Buna Shimeji, safe. Amanita Muscaria, toxic. If it looks like it came out of a Mario game, don’t eat it. Next Mugwort, that's edible. Wolf’s Bane. Are you trying to poison us?”  
“Plus Yew berries, nightshade and holly berries. God damn it Taiju, if it’s colorful and you don’t know what it is, please don’t pick it.”  
With that the group had decided to make a late breakfast while explaining to Taiju what to collect and what to not on further foraging ventures.  
“Oh man! This is Tasty! What the heck did you season this with?” Taiju asked with his mouth full of mushrooms. Senku smiled as he ate his own fill of mushrooms while Eeva nibbled on her own next to him.  
“Just some Salt, Eeva pulled out of the sea water she had left from making ink. A little pinch of this and it can make anything palatable. It can also be used for preserving foods, one of early man’s greatest discoveries.” Eeva nodded in agreement before swallowing her own food and adding in.  
“It also had a lot of uses in tanning clothing and salt scrubs for cleaning bacteria away. Hence why it is such an important resource and fought over in early civilizations.”  
“Thank you, Senku, Eeva. This is perfect! I might not know all the stuff you guys do, but I’m going to bust My back working for us!” With that Taiju sprung up finishing his pig leg and grabbed the woven basket from the side of the tree.  
“Time to check out the other direction!” Taiju said as he ran off into the woods.  
“Don’t forget! Nothing colorful and nothing you don’t know” Eeva shouted as she got up from her spot to clean up her meal, while Senku merely waved his friend goodbye.  
“Jeez, could he be any more reckless?” Eeva said as she put her hands on her hips and shook her head before turning to Senku.  
“Leave it be, fox.” He said as he tossed his stick into the fire and patted the dirt off of his clothes. He made his way to the lab and Eeva followed him in as he pulled down the aged bottles of nitric acid.  
“The big oaf will be fine, Even if something bad happens. Regardless We need to get to work. Eeva can you set up for the exposure test? I want to see if the age of the nitric acid has anything to do with the depetrification process. Can you pull out the aged viles we set aside and set them up outside?’  
“Alright, I can do that. I’ll also make sure there’s space between them that way no fumes hit our respiratory system. Are you going to get some fresh nitric acid as the control?” Eeva asked as she pulled one or the stools they had made in order to have something to put the vials on till she was fully set up.  
“Yeah it would probably be best”  
With a wave goodbye to Eeva as she had finished setting up and started pouring the contents onto the sparrows, Senku made his way to the bat cave. As he did, He thought over the current experiment and it’s possible results.  
“With this experiment we’ve been preparing for the last couple of weeks we can rule out if age was the cause or not. Should it fail, prolonged exposure might be the cause of our revival and see if we need something stronger for the formula. And if that fails, there might be something we're not seeing .”  
However as he got within a yard of the cave a loud shout could be heard from it and immediately knew it was Taiju.  
“I gotta Know who they are!” Taiju said as excitement at the thought that his group wasn’t the only ones around, but his hopes were soon dashed.  
“It was me you idiot.” Senku said as he picked his ear completely unamused. Causing Taiju to turn around in shock before the disappointment kicked in.  
“Are we the only ones left, for real? Like the last humans still alive?” He asked as his friend walked up to him in the cave. Senku could feel his friend’s concern as he stood next to him and decided to answer his question.  
“We’ll get more. That’s a top priority. I mean, the two of us alone, a couple of dudes and one female who would rather die than let inbreeding happen down the line. Can’t really “Restart Humanity” on that note if you catch my drift.” he said with the disgust on his face clear as day.  
“Yeah. That’s true.” Taiju said in fear of Senku’s implication.  
However, moving off theat note Senku walked forward to the pile of stone from Taiju’s petrification to explain their actions before squatting down to pick one up.  
“Besides, why, after thirty seven hundred years did we break free from our petrified condition?”  
“The stone rotted away?” Taiju said as he watched his friend.  
“Well, something like that. Say this strange mineral had been corroded.” Senku looked up to Taiju with a small laugh and waved the piece around as he continued.  
“Can you chalk up the timing to mere random coincidence? Six months apart is a relative blip on the radar. There’s a reason we reanimated so close together.”  
He then turned to the top of the cave where the bats were comfortably resting for the daylight hours.  
“We drifted up near here. It would make sense that this cave factored in somehow. See that? The stuff trickling from overhead?”  
This caused Taiju to look up at the bats above.  
“That’s our miracle fluid, made from bat guano. Good old nitric acid.” He said with a smile on his face. And of course poor Taiju was completely lost on the topic, so he decided to let his friend give him a visual demonstration to understand his point. As they made their way back to camp they found Eeva looking rather annoyed at the sparrows that were laid out before her.  
“Any luck, Eeva?” Senku asked as he walked over to look at the experiment over her shoulder. Eeva merely sighed and brushed back her long hair with her hands and looked to him before responding. Disappointment clear on her face.  
“If you mean standing here like an idiot while nothing happens for the last thirty minutes, then yes I would say it was a success. Do you have the control? I have the sparrow set up.”  
Now it was Senku’s turn to be disappointed as he looked to viles. The two had been collecting the bottles in hopes to see if the age of the fluid affected the cause of reversal. However with these tests being a failure it is safe to say it was not the cause but it is still worth a try. However they still needed to do a control to finish off any test. Senku moved to the last stone sparrow that was set for last as it showed no sign of having any fluids poured over it. He took the remaining vial that he had collected and bent down causing Taiju to do the same.  
“Let Me Guess. You pour some of the miracle stuff on it, the stone breaks and the bird wakes up.” Taiju said as he watched Senku poured the fluid over the bird. As he did Eeva also leaned down to watch as she moved to sit on her knees.  
“How I wish it were straight forward. That would rule” He said not taking his eyes off the bird. The three watched with intensity hoping that the stone would break and the poor creature would wake up but unfortunately it remained still. They let out a defeated sigh and sat for a moment before Eeva got to her feet and gave Senku a hand up. The two scientists motioned Taiju to follow them into the lab.  
“We’ve been working like madmen on this Project, using every last method we could think of”  
“And yet we still fall short. It pisses me off not being able to help anyone like this.” Eeva said as she took a seat on the work table and scratched it with her nails in annoyance. She watched Senku place the birds back on the shelf while Taiju marveled at their work.  
“Yet, we continue. Over and over, again and again. It’s like something from a fantasy world. Is it all mineral? Are there living cells underneath? We don’t have the proper laboratory for in-depth analysis.”  
“Even if we did have a good lab, it would still take a while.”  
“So basically what you're telling me is, there are things that even science can’t explain.” Taiju said in concern at the thought of the two not being able to figure this one out. However, both Eeva and Senku let out a small laugh at this notion before Senku turned to reply back.  
“There we go, that tired old cliche’. Truth is, it never stands up to the scientific method. Science is often a slow process. Right Eeva?”  
Eeva looked up and nodded to her companion before speaking her own thoughts on the matter with a smile.  
“He has a point Taiju, it took humans many years to realize that there wasn’t some god tossing around lightning bolts when he was angry and that earthquakes weren’t the result of an unhappy minotaur under our feet. However we are curious creatures and poking our noses into what’s really going on is our specialty. So Senku, what is our next plan of action? The experiment for age of the nitric acid failed. Is it safe to assume that concentration is our next step?”  
Senku smiled at how quick his assistant caught on to what his next plan of action was.  
“Exactly Eeva, some liquor should speed things up.”  
This confused Taiju as he was lost on why the two started talking about alcohol and they noticed his plight and decided to explain.  
“Combined with the nitric acid, we could make something nice and potent. What’s commonly known as nital, which is an industrial strength etching agent.”  
“You're losing him Brainiac.” Eeva said as she pushed her hair out of her face as she felt he might have confused the big oaf with his words.  
“What did you say we needed?”  
This caused Senku to turn back to Taiju and repeat his words but was interrupted as he admitted to the two that he had found some wild grapes. This caused the two scientists to get extremely excited as they had a first material needed to start making the alcohol. However before Taiju could take pride in his discovery he felt himself being pulled slightly backwards and turned to Eeva pulling all her might to get him out the door.  
“Come on Taiju! It’s not Everyday you get to make wine like the Ancient Greeks and we're going to need a lot! I feel like a dunce for forgetting the import plants! Let’s Go! Show me!” Eeva cried as she continued to tug on his clothes but Taiju took it in stride, grabbed her forearm and dragged the excited Eeva like a happy rag doll to the wild grape patch he found. Senku couldn’t help but laugh at sight but he couldn’t blame her. He was just happy and eager to get to work. Soon after their return with a mountain of fresh grapes. They set Taiju to work on both crushing and stirring the grapes for the next three weeks. During that time Eeva had noticed in between her collecting raw materials for their work and making a small target for practicing archery. She had noticed her male counterpart was making something much bigger than they normally needed with the clay while Taiju was out hunting.  
“Are you making a Distiller, Senku?” Eeva asked as she put down the target she was working on, onto the ground to overlook his work. Senku looked up with a bit of mud on his left cheek and hands as he stopped what he was doing.  
“Yeah, We’ll need it later in order to make harder liquor for the alcohol. So What do you think, fox?”  
Eeva bent down and looked over the clay structure which was only a foot tall thus far and was only as thick as a dime on it’s side. However considering it would be underneath a fire it might not withstand well under the heat.  
“Do you think that it will withstand the heat Senku? If it’s too thin it might break from the boiling and the heat?”  
Senku smiled as he leaned back and stretched his arms over his head before reclining slightly for a small break from the work.  
“It should be fine and if not we’ll make a new one. It is what it is.”  
Eeva smiled and shrugged as she went back to pick up her target and shifted her body to move towards the lab.  
“Alright, but you know the deal if it blows up in your face” Eeva said as she walked away while Senku merely waved away her words, knowing that that the distiller was fine.

***  
“ I thought of something. Isn’t it a crime to drink under age?” Taiju asked as he finished the process of making the wine by pouring it into a new jug with a net to catch the skin while Senku and Eeva looked at the completed product.  
Senku mealy gave a minicale grin as he swirled the wine in a clay glass he asked Eeva to make the other day. While said girl was keeping an eye on Taiju’s work in order not to lose any.  
“Not a problem. After all, we’re all over thirty seven hundred years old.” Senku said as he raised his wine glass causing Eeva to smile before turning to reassure the big oaf.  
“Don’t worry Taiju, the wine we made is like the classic wine of Greece and has a relatively low alcohol content. Only about thirteen percent. A single sip won’t make you drunk or anything. Besides this stuff is a lot safer than river water as there is less of a chance of harmful microbes.”  
Taiju stared wide-eyed before turning to Senku to confirm Eeva’s words.  
“She does have a point, so we should be fine. Now to test it” He said as he passed Eeva a glass to drink. All three took a swig of the concoction and while Senku and Eeva drank from glasses, Taiju drank straight from the jar. After a single taste Taiju spat out the wine and coughed the rest out to get rid of the taste in his mouth. Meanwhile, Senku and Eeva merely lowered and looked at the glasses.  
“Not bad. Way better than expected. Bet it’s ten billion times worse than what was on the market.”  
“It shows you how much it has changed since the time of the Greeks in terms of flavor. Though I think it still tastes gross regardless.”  
Taiju marveled at their words and what they were insinuating with wine still on his face as he looked at the jar.  
“That was so easy, stomping on grapes and sitting around?”  
Senku stretched and cracked his neck while Eeva picked up the glasses and poured the wine back in the jar.  
“One step at a time, my friend. Though I hate to say it, our pace will slow down. This’ll be a course in ‘distilling wine for dummies.’ our goal is to acquire some brandy.”  
He then got up and made his way to the door along with Taiju and Eeva in toe. Taiju leapt from the treehouse and landed on his feet while Senku climbed down and gave Eeva a hand on the last part of the treestand.  
“Distining, huh? No idea what that means.” Taiju said as he steded himself from the fall.  
“I knew you’d say that. It’s heating, cooling and dripping. That I’ll concentrate the alcohol.”  
“To put it lightly, Taiju, we need a stronger alcohol content level in the wine to make it closer to things like whisky or vodka.” The redhead said with a light blush on her cheeks from aid as she could have gotten down herself but took his hand for more balance as she wasn’t very fond of the use of the tree stand in the latter. The three moved to the lab where Senku had set up the clay distiller to be used for their harder liqueurs and started the fire underneath.  
“Don't worry. People back in ancient Mesopotamia were doing this with clay pots in three thousand B.C. and if they can do it so can we!” As Senku said with excitement as he sat in front of the distiller. As he did, Eeva noticed a small crack starting to form on the side of the distiller.  
“Ah! Senku!”  
“So get Excited Taiju, Eeva!”  
CRASH  
The distiller exploded in front of all three of them and hit Senku the most due to his close proximity. This caused the three to say quite for a few moments before Senku broke the silence.  
“Eeva”  
“Yes”  
“Don’t say it”  
“Wasn’t planning on it. Now let's get you cleaned up.”  
That evening both Taiju and Eeva spent the rest of the trying to console the annoyed scientist as he aggressively started the distiller from scratch as Eeva cleaned off his shirt and Taiju offered him some food. Thus the work for a cure is about to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late post. I was planning on posting this chapter at the end of October with Senku and the Gang waking up Tsukasa, But I keep myself in check by doing it single space and have a 6 page limit on myself not to go mad on the details. (According to my google doc it hit 7 pages.) I do Hope You all Enjoy!  
> -Luna


	7. Tarzan

“Senku? Why do you look like Beedle from the Legend of Zelda?” Eeva said as she looked over her friend. Senku had one of the woven baskets they had made on his back with a variety of tools hanging out of it, from spears to extra arrows, to even a shovel. Eeva questioned how he was even standing as he also had his normal tools on him along with rope and some small wooden cages.  
“It’s about to become November so we need to get some more furs for the winter season since we humans don’t have the luxury of having fur of our own. So I figured while Taiju is out collecting the rest of the grapes so that way we can make more alcohol to work with over the winter. We could go get some animal hides and work on your little phobia.” Senku said as he adjusted the pack on his back trying to stop his shaking from the weight of all the tools.  
“Alright, perhaps it is a good idea to stock up but due tell me something Senku, Have you ever hunted before outside of world building games and your traps?” Eeva said as looked him over and put her hand on his shoulder.   
“No, Why?” He said. As he did Eeva gave him a slight push backwards that was enough to put pressure on him but not to hurt or shove but this little gesture was thought to tip him over causing him to fall with a grate clatter with a few of his tools skating about, causing Eeva to smile.  
“My point is made.” Eeva said as she bent down and helped Senku off the ground and grabbed one of the spears out of his bag as he dusted the dirt off of him.  
“Alight fox, then what do I need to hunt?” he said with a hit of sarcasm as he looked at her. Eeva in response handed the spear, picked up and emptied his pack and then put the loose rope in it.  
“For you? Just these.” She said as she turned around to collect her own weapons. “The last thing we need in a hunt is a living noise maker.”  
Senku only shot her a small dirty look of annoyance before watching her rummage through the jars of materials by the treehouse and pull out what one could assume were sticks. However, they were the remains of the antlers of the yearling she caught a few months back. Causing him to smile at what Eeva was planning as he walked over.  
“I know the mating season for the deer is almost over but i'm sure we can at least try to get some to come to us. Since no buck can resist a dual for a fair doe.” Eeva said with a mischievous smirk.  
With that the two went out into the woods with the hope of finally getting some winter quality furs. As they made their way to the traps that had been set up to see if any had been caught. As well as to see how they would go about working on Eeva’s phobia to help her get through it in this stone world. However while they did catch a few rabbits, there was a small problem with that as a small weak squeal came out of the rabbits that were caught. All Eeva could do was merely tremble with the small knife in her hands as she watched it weakly struggle in the snare.   
“S-senku… c-can we l-let this o-one go…” Eeva Squeaked out as she turned back to Senku who was unhooking some of the others that had been caught and had already died from the pressure of blood on their hearts from being upside down for too long. Senku turned to her and looked her over. It was obviously clear that she was heavily uncomfortable with the prospect of taking the life of the poor animal but this was a test to see what needed to be worked on in case something were to happen to them.   
“Eeva.” Senku said to get her attention off of the struggling rabbit and removed the knife from her hands causing her to look up at her companion. However much to Senku’s interest the girls seemed less scared of the already dead bunny he placed in her hands that once held the knife but still stared at it displeased. Taking this chance while Eeva was turning the rabbit over in her hands. Senku made a quick incision on the rabbit in the snare to give it a gentle end. However none were expecting the last unhappy cry it let out before passing on. Senku turned back to look at Eeva to check on her after hearing the unavoidable sound and saw that the trembling had picked back up again and caused his friend to clutch the animal in her hands.   
“You okay Fox? How you are feeling” Senku said, watching her carefully to see if he pushed it too much already. However the girl turned to him, gave him a shaky closed eye smile and nodded. The poor girl did her best to avoid looking at the now dead rabbit and only taking slight glances before turning back to the basket on the ground to put in the rabbit she was holding. She then sat causing Senku to rush to her hoping that he hadn’t induced her into an attack but saw that she was pacing her breathing and clutching her dress to calm herself down.   
“Easy, fox Just keep doing that.” He said as he tried to give his friend some comfort but just stood there somewhat awkwardly and uncomfortable as Eeva calmed herself on the ground.   
“I’ll be good, just give me a moment and we can go get a deer.” the girl said as she stood back up and let out a calm slow breath before breathing back in and slapping her cheeks.  
“I’m Fine! I can do this! You can Do this Eeva!” She then Turned to Senku, shoved the basket into his arms and dragged him along with one hand and pulled out her bow in the other.  
“I’ll catch a buck with the biggest set of antlers the stone world has ever seen!” She said as she dragged her friend behind her a little confused. Regardless He tried to keep up with friend’s burst of valor even if he could still feel shaking.  
Soon the two found themselves hidden among the bushes waiting for some deer to come by. While they waited Eeva stayed low but enough to see the area before them as she clacked the antlers together to entice bucks to come by. Meanwhile Senku looked over rabbits and thought about how he would implement the new fur into the winter clothing for their first winter out in the wild. Senku then turned to his companion to ask for her opinion but saw that Eeva had become tense and stopped her use of the antlers. Senku turned the way she was looking and saw that a good size buck came in, most likely looking for sounds of a duel between two other males for a doe but saw none. Senku then turned to Eeva and placed a hand on her shoulder as she pulled her bow out and loaded an arrow.   
“Stay focus Fox, Just put the thoughts of what happens next out of your head and focus on shooting straight.” Senku said in a whisper as they both watched the beast. Eeva only nodded and slightly shook in worry but regardless pulled back on the bowstring. Her eyes locked onto where she would hit to make sure the buck went down without a hitch even if it wasn’t on the side she would have preferred it to be on. Regardless she calmed herself one more time before letting the arrow lose. It’s then when I finally hit her. As the arrow hit it’s mark and fully downed the stag, Eeva’s body started to give out on her as she collapsed to the ground. Her Eyes started to play tricks on her as her heart rate started to go up and the sound of her heart in her ears drummed. Blocking out any of Senku’s attempts to bring her back to reality. The bile immediately came out of her mouth as she bent over in a coughing fit. However to Eeva this was nothing compared to the vision her eyes were giving her. Instead of a large stag she downed with a single blow a man laid on his stomach with a large boulder crushing his body from stomach down. Blood was dripping down his eyes and mouth in a constant flow as he reached out for aid from the red head. This caused her to scuttle back in fear, causing her to bump back into her companion who gripped her shoulders with all his might. It didn’t hurt but it finally snapped her out of her state.   
“Snap out of it Eeva! It’s your mind playing with you. Guilt tripping you thinking an accident was your fault!” Senku said as he shook her from behind slightly in order to get her back to her senses. She still shook with fear and anxiety but she was slowly starting to revert back to herself after the attack.   
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry… Senku, It looks like this is going to be a long and difficult road ahead. I hope you can bear with me on this, my friend.” Eeva said in a very horse tone as her throat healed itself from the acidic properties of her stomach bile. Senku gave a small smile before he pulled one of Eeva’s arms over his shoulder to help her get back on her feet.   
“It's fine, Eeva. We got the groundwork all figured out on how to solve this problem now. so now it’s just getting it solved just like any other experiment we would work on. Right Eeva?”  
Said girl just smiled knowing her friend hadn’t given up on her.  
They both struggle to get up, as Eeva was still Shaking and Senku being as weak as a flea but they got up with a bit of work. As they get Eeva to lean up against the tree and take the pack of rabbits while Senku gets the buck all sorted out while keeping it out of Eeva’s sight before they head back. As a result the way back to camp was long and tiring as the two struggled to get back with Eeva still a little out of sorts and Senku struggling to bring the deer back as it probably weighed more than him. As they trudged into camp both were completely startled by the giant they left behind.   
“SENKU! EEVA! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!? YOU WERE GONE FOR SO LONG!” Taiju Screamed as he rushed his two friends and gave them both a massive bear hug that enveloped them, causing their gains to fall to the ground.  
“Taiju! You're going to kill us!” Senku screamed as he could hear a few things pop from his friend's strength. While Eeva just let her body go limp to reduce the pressure on her from the hug. The two were let go and slumped slightly to catch their breath.  
“Taiju, as much as I love your bone crushing hugs, please no more for now.” Eeva said as she straightened her stature and held her head, slightly rubbing her temples.   
“Tired Fox? Why don't you go take a nap” Senku asked in a slight teasing tone as he looked over to his tired friend. Eeva looked completely exhausted as she looked completely disheveled.   
“You know what I think I might just do that.” Eeva said she was already starting to head up to the tree house.  
“Sleep well Eeva!” Taiju shouted sweetly. Eeva just smiled and waved as she went into the hut.   
As she disappeared Taiju pulled the stag over his shoulders and looked at Senku to know what was wrong with their female companion.   
“Is she okay, Senku? She looked a little sick.”   
Senku thought for a moment on how to describe it to him as they walked towards one of the larger trees they had to hang the deer to drain the blood.  
“The best way to describe this, Taiju, is that while we were out we were testing to see how bad Eeva’s Traumatophobia has been since our time in the modern era compared to now. Facing one’s fears is difficult and phobias are the hardest to face as our minds put up a mental barrier to keep our mind from thinking about it. It can get so bad that thinking about it can cause a shut down of the mind and full body rejection.” Senku said as he positioned a jug directly under the head of the stag for the blood to run into the jar but as Senku looked up to see if Taiju had made the cut to start, the big fool only looked more confused but still having some understanding as he scratched his chin.  
“So Eeva’s sickness is her just being super scared about all the hunting and blood.” Taiju said, trying to wrap his head around it. Senku gave a slightly amused smile as Taiju was able to get it slightly.  
“In a way, yes. To Put it simply Eeva’s fear of open wounds stems from the fear of hurting others from what happened to her and as a result anything she thinks she’s hurting sets her off into an attack. Mainly because her mind replays the incident that caused her trauma to take control and make her believe that it's no different from the incident to make it her fault.” Senku Explains as the two start to finish the prep for the drain and begin.  
“So this is why she can’t hunt, Senku?” Taiju asked as he secured the end fit the rope supporting the deer around the tree and making sure it stayed up. Happy with Taiju understanding, an excited smirk appeared on Senku’s face.  
“Your ten billion percent right, Taiju! If we can break Eeva out of this little tick and have a first class medical researcher in top shape!” He said with excitement in his eyes and it seemed this excitement was then spread to Taiju by proxy.  
“Oh Yeah! Doctors are the first on the scene with things like this!”   
“Exactly Right! Now let's Get ready For Winter you Big Oaf!”  
Little did the boys know that there was a redhead in the treehouse doing everything in her power not to cry from the happiness. She had heard every word that her two friends had said since the wood siding of the treehouse was still very thin. However, the fact that her friends who were willing to give it there all to figure out how to help her even in this stone world reminded her that they still cared about her spaz-like ways.   
***  
By the time that the Deer skin was fully tanned the first snow of the season had come in to be an annoyance for the group as the snow in japan could be quite high making it somewhat difficult to move in but they were able to keep their living area fairly clear even if the snow was piled up to their chests. However the world doesn't wait for no one and the group continued there work with Senku and Eeva still continuing there work on the rival fluid leaving the hunting to Taiju. However winter has its ups and downs. As Senku watched his red haired friend shake like a leaf as they kept an eye on the distillation while Taiju went out ice fishing. She reminded him of a Russian nesting doll as she had the all the blankets and her winter clothes keeping her warm.  
“Having fun over there snow fox”  
He then got hit by a snowball right between the eyes.  
“I’m from San Francisco. Shut it!” Eeva hiss as she pulled her hand back in her blankets.  
“SENKU! EEVA! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!” The two of them looked over to see Taiju Running as fast as he could with the snow shoes they had made for moving about.   
“Did you catch a fish with a tongue eating louse in it Taiju?” Eeva asked from her spot as she looked to the fish in his hands.   
“What? No. It’s this beard! Yuzuriha is going to hate it!” Taiju shouted in fear of getting rejected by his crush.  
“Yeah, we should probably do something about it for hygienic reasons. We can’t get sick out here.” Senku said as he moved to one of the jars near the lab.  
“Not all girls are opposed to men with beards but Senku does have a point” Eeva said as she snuggled deeper into her blankets and looked fairly sleepy.  
“I’ll make some wax later to help you since a shave will come back in a few days.”  
However She immediately shot up as she heard Taiju scream in pain. Only to see Senku using clams to pluck out the hair around his face with a look of pure mischief only to fall over laughing as Taiju’s face throbbed in pain.  
“That worse than wax, Dumbass!” Eeva screamed as pushed snow onto his face and covered him from head down to his waist.   
***  
However with hard work and persistence a year had gone by and late spring had started to settle in when the cure to the petrification formula had been finally made. The trio huddled around one of their log stools with a petrified sparrows atop ready to see if the revival solution truly worked. Senku held the bottle high and watched the solution fall onto the bird while Eeva held another.  
“Listen Up, big oaf. Lesson one: it’s not that there are things science can’t explain. Not in the least.”   
Cracks started to form near the eye of the bird showing it was about to be free.  
“There are rules behind everything that happens. Science is just the name of the steady, pain in the ass effort that goes into finding out what they are.” As Senku stopped the Three held their breath as the bird’s petrification fully came undone. Freeing the small animal from its stone prison and letting it fly once again. The trio watched this as Taiju screamed at the top of his lungs in excitement of their work while Senku took a seat on the stone stove with a sigh and watched the bird fly free.  
“We’ve been experimenting for a year now. It actually didn't take as long as I'd imagined.” He then let out a small laugh at the amount of time it took.  
“Slow and steady wins the race. I’m going to beat fantasy with science as my only weapon.” Senku smiled as he looked up at the sky. Determination brimming in his eyes.  
“Oh yeah. Get excited.”   
As Senku was brought back to reality He saw that Eeva had placed down another sparrow on the log and leaned down and poured her bottle over the sparrow as she leaned down to watch the process. The sparrow was most likely resting on a tree when it was petrified as it was in a sitting position with its claws still curled. As if it was still on a thin branch. Cracks slowly started to form and release the bird from its stone prison. It was disoriented for a second as it regained its footing and gently hopped away from the girl before flying off. Eeva merely stood up and looked to it flying off before turning to her compassion by the fire pit.  
“It’s better to have a friend when all alone in a new world.”   
Senku smiled at her words and gave her a nod in agreement. Before the two were disrupted by Taiju coming back to reality.  
“What do you two think? Who are we going to bring back first?”  
The two scientists thought for a moment and looked at each other before silently agreeing on something causing Eeva to smile at their shared agreement.   
“Well, we’re gonna everybody sooner or later. So it doesn't matter all that much who we start with. Although, I suppose it would suck if we happened to wake up a murderer first.” Senku said with a laugh.  
“Don’t say that Senku. Knowing your luck, you just might.” Eeva quipped, looking a bit annoyed at the joke but Senku still smiled at the joke. Though it did make Taiju think about who they should wake up first.  
“I get ya.”   
Senku realized his joke backfired and decided to change topics.  
“I don’t particularly feel like choosing who we revive first. So, Taiju it’s all on you my friend. After all the grapes were your idea in the first place”  
Taiju smiled ear to ear at the implication and Eeva herself smiled a bit.  
‘Finally I won’t be the only girl anymore’  
“I appreciate that, pal. I know Who I’ll pick. I mean it’s obvious.”  
***  
The group decided to wait till the next day to wake up Yuzuriha as it would give them more daylight hours to explain to her what was going on and what the plan was. However there was a bit of a problem.  
“Senku! Where are you?!” Eeva called out as she wandered through the forests near the treehouse. Senku had wandered off to do god knows what, while Taiju was playing the ‘loves me, loves men not’ game with some flowers he found in excitement for Yuzuriha. It took her awhile to find him but did find him leaning over with the scent of something foul in the air. Out of pure medical instinct ran over to him to make sure he was okay. Her friend was fine and not sick. However she saw what he was doing and saw a lovely bunch of human flesh that had been unpetrified. This obviously causes Eeva to pass out from both the shock of the Flesh and the fact that Senku of all people was responsible. So it isn’t all that surprising that Eeva found herself back at camp, covered by a blanket and lines in the ground showing that Senku most likely had to drag her back. As she Sat up against the tree holding the treehouse she felt a piece of paper.  
‘Eeva, Me and Taiju left to go get Yuzuriha. Please stay here, get some rest and don’t do that again. I was testing to make sure the revival formula on human tissue. -Senku’  
‘Oh dear,’ Eeva thought as she got up and climbed the ladder to the tree house to get to one of the jars she had claimed as hers and pulled out a spare dress that looked much different from hers. This dress was made for Yuzuriha by Eeva knowing full well that while Eeva could care less about her parts being seen, the same could not be said for her friend.  
“Poor Yuzu.” Eeva said to herself in slight shame of not telling the boys. However as she put the dress back into the jug the sounds of people could be heard the sounds of voices. One of which she had never heard, definitely not the sound of two flustered teens. Eeva pulled her bow off the wall and crawled to the edge of the door with the arrow ready to be pulled back. Which she soon did as she heard someone climbing up the latter. However she stopped herself as a very confused Senku popped up from the rise of the floor.  
“So this is where you went fox. Can you please put that away for now.” He said as he fully pulled himself up and into the hut.   
“Sorry, did something happen? I didn’t hear Yuzu’s voice.” Eeva said as she stood back up to take the arrow out of the bow. Senku walked past her showing no outward emotions as he gestured outside.  
“You could say we had to make a last minute change to the revival as we got jumped by some lions that were descended from the zoo.” Senku said went to look through the jugs. Eeva decided to poke her nose out of the Hut and saw what her friend had meant. As she looked she saw a man who reminded her of Tarzan from the movie of the same name, observed the laboratory. Tall and muscular with long dark brown hair that went down past his shoulder blades and petrification scares running across his face. His clothes still looked fresh from the animal as they are red in color but that wasn’t what worried Eeva. No, it was the fact that he wore a lion pelt clock around his shoulders as if to make his strength.   
“Oh, I see. How lovely, someone new.”


End file.
